R
Ann Rachel
Children's performer, composer and folk musician living in New Hampshire, with over twenty years of experience living in Israel. Her website includes links to folk music culture in Israel.
Rosa Raisa
Born May 23, 1893, Bialystok, Poland.(nee, Burchstein). Died September 28, 1963, Los Angeles, California. Soprano. Sang with the Chicago Opera and internationally in over 500 performances. Popular for her performances in Italian operas. Opened a school in the 1930s in Chicago with her husband, Giacomo Rimini. A webpage devoted to her has some wonderful photos and more about her opera performances. A biography has been written by Charles Mintzer called: "Rosa Raisa: A Biography of a Diva with Selections from Her Memoirs" published by Northeastern University Press.
http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Sopranos/Raisa__Rosa/hauptteil_raisa__rosa.html
and
http://www.operajaponica.org/reviews/books/rosaraisa.htm
Shulamit Ran
A widely acclaimed composer and pianist who studied in Israel and the United States and now works internationally, including the US. Ms. Ran was born in Tel Aviv. While primarily a classical musician, Ms. Ran has written several works both on Jewish themes, including an opera The Dybbuk, and and works with Jewish musical content, including klezmer-influenced music and several liturgical settings. Ms. Ran won the Pulitzer Prize in 1991. Her music is published by Theodore Presser which has an excellent page dedicated to her music, her publications, her biography and a discography. It includes a photo.
http://www.presser.com/composers/ran.html
Rabbi Rayzel Raphael
American. Born, Knoxville, Tennessee. Rabbi. Singer-songwriter. Geela-Rayzel Raphael is the co-creator of Shabbat Unplugged- a musical, rockin' Shabbat service; sings with MIRAJ, an a cappella trio; and New Shalom, which offers lively interactive Shabbat services for synagogues and street performance. She has been writing songs for over 20 years. Her debut CD was Bible Babes a' Beltin -strong songs of biblical women. In addition, she has recorded two CDs with MIRAJ. Her songs tend to be lifecycle ritual songs, ballads of Jewish women, and Hebrew/English liturgy.
Rabbi Raphael is the daughter of Mitchell and Natalie Robinson. She received a BA from Indiana University in religious studies, and a Masters in Contemporary Jewish Studies from Brandeis University. Rayzel studied at Machon Pardes and the Melton Center for Jewish Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She was also a Wexner Graduate Fellow. Rayzel worked fifteen years for the Jewish community, first as the Director of the Jewish Student Federation of York University, Toronto, and more recently as the Director of the Graduate Student Project at Hillel of Greater Philadelphia. Currently, she is the Rabbinic Director of Faithways, an Interfaith Family Support Network of the Jewish Family and Children's Service of Greater Philadelphia. As well, she directs the Jewish Creativity Project of New Legends, a program of education through music and the arts; and consults with the Jewish Women's Spirituality Institute of the Bux-Mont JCC. She served Leyv Ha-Ir Reconstructionist Congregation of Center City, Philadelphia as rabbi for nine years. She currently resides in Phildelphia. She offers concerts, services,Havdalah programs and other events where music serves a sacred and joyous purpose.
Judith Raskin
A lyric soprano whose voice was often described as ravishing, Judith Raskin stressed purity of sound, clear diction, and the musical line. Born 21 June 1928, in New York, Judith grew up as an only child of teachers Harry A. Raskin and Lillian Mendelson Raskin. She studied both violin and piano as a child, but discovered singing, and sang in the glee club of Roosevelt High School in Yonkers. She studied voice with Anna Hamlin and acting with Ludwig Donath at Smith College, graduating 1949 with a BA, and along the way winning various scholarships and awards including the Harriet D. Barnum Award. Smith College later also awarded her an honorary MA in 1963. She won the Marian Anderson Scholarship for two years 1952 and 1953, and in 1956 won an award by the Musician s Club of New York. That same year, she sang the title role in The Ballad of Baby Doe, which premiered in Central City, Colorado.
Raskin sang with the New York Oratorio Society, and was soloist with the Symphony of the Air. Particularly noted performances were a June, 1956 performance of Die Fledermaus, and a July, 1957 La Boheme, both held in Central Park, NYC, Followed by Medea in Dallas in 1958. The TV production of Poulenc s Dialogues of the Carmelites in 1957 as Sister Constance gave her a national stage, as did the NBC Opera Company s Don Giovanni in April, 1960.
Ms. Raskin joined the New York City Opera Company, making her debut at City Center in 1959 as Despina in Cosi fan Tutte by Mozart. She later became known for her perfect artistry in Mozart, according to Wintrop Sargeant.
From her debut at the Metropolitan Opera 23 February 1962 as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Raskin s repertoire ranged into about twenty operatic roles, especially baroque opera. She stayed at the Met ten years until 16 March 1972. She also sang at the Chicago Lyric and other opera houses.
In 1964, she received a Ford Foundation grant for a solo recital where she premiered pieces by Hugo Weisgall and Miriam Gideon. The New York Times reported it was a triumph from start to finish that not only justified the praise given her& but also [suggests] that Miss Raskin may rank among the finest half-dozen lieder singers in the world. While she enjoyed an active recital life, especially in baroque music, unfortunately the amount of recital work that she would have preferred did not materialize during her mature career years.
She took advantage of other opportunities and recorded for numerous record labels and turned to teaching, becoming an instructor at Manhattan School of Music. She also taught at 92nd Street Y and at Mannes College. Raskin served on the music panel of the National Endowment of the Arts and as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera auditions.
Judith Raskin married the psychiatrist Dr. Raymond A. Raskin, a distant relative, on 11 July 1948. They had two children.
Raskin continued singing until just before her death. The Washington Post, reported of her April 1984 concert, she revealed more of the poetry of the music than most singers do& and did some of her finest singing& Although Raskin had survived breast cancer some twenty years earlier, she succumbed to ovarian cancer 21 December 1984 at age 56.
A version of this article will appear in the new edition of Encyclopedia Judaica. Sources include American National Biography; Current Biography, 1964; many articles from The New York Times; The Washington Post and other newspapers, various articles from journals such as Musical America and websites such as
Judith Raskin bio.
Zlata Razdolina (Rosenberg)
Born in Leningrad. (Now St. Petersburg). Composer and singer. Most of her repertoire of more than six hundred romances and songs is composed on texts of the famous Russian classical poets, A. Akhmatova, N.Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, M. Tsvetayeva, A. Blok, I. Severyanin, S.Yesenin and others. In Israel she has written music for symphony orchestras, choirs and chamber ensembles. Works include "Requiem", performed in 1989 at the Kremlin, Moscow; "The song of the Murdered Jewish People" on a poem by Itzhak Katzenelson; soundtrack for Kastner's Trial". Immigrated to Israel in 1990. To contact her directly: razdolin@netvision.net.il
A Website includes information on compositions, recordings, and link to a brief biography.
http://www.igc.apc.org/ddickerson/zlata-razdolina/index.html
http://www.geocities.com/razdolina/
Jalda Rebling
Born in Amsterdam. Daughter of Lin Jaldati. Singer.
Specializes in Jewish song.
Nadia Reisenberg
Born 14 July 1904, in Vilna, Lithuania, Nadia Reisenberg moved with her family to St. Petersburg in 1915 where she studied piano at the Conservatory under Leonid Nikolaiev. After the Russian revolution, the family moved, going from Vilna, where Nadia played in the Gelios Theatre accompanying movies, to Poland where she concertized with the Warsaw Philharmonic, to Germany. The Reisenberg s came to America in 1922. Under the helpful largesse of Isaac Sherman, Nadia gave private recitals and began to build a reputation.
With less than one year of study with Alexander Lambert in New York, she gave her American debut on 17 December 1922, playing the Polish Fantasy by Ignace Paderewski, with the composer at the performance in the Century Theatre. With sterling reviews by the press, the young Miss Reisenberg began to receive invitations for more recitals.
Her first solo appearance occurred at Aeolian Hall in 6 February 1924, and from there she began touring. Already possessing a brilliant technique in which she tossed off technical difficulties with ease and fluency, her audiences were won over by the depth of her musicianship, diverse repertoire, strength and agility, and as well as convincing and serious interpretations beyond her years.
She married Isaac Sherman, an economist, 24 June 1924 and they had two sons, Alex (born 2 April 1925) and Robert (born 23 July 1932). She credited the successful balancing of her concert career and raising a family with having complete cooperation and understanding from her husband.
In 1930, she began studies with Josef Hoffman at the Curtis Institute, receiving a diploma in 1935, and teaching there from 1934-38. She also taught at Mannes, Queens College, CUNY, the Julliard School, and in the 1960s spent six summers giving master classes at the Rubin Academy in Israel.
Reisenberg focused significant attention on chamber music, which she considered her first and real love in this world. She often concertized with the Budapest Quartet, or soloists such as cellist Joseph Schuster, and violinists William Kroll and Erick Friedman.
In 1939-1940, she amazed radio listeners by performing the complete Mozart Piano Concertos in a cycle of weekly broadcasts, which she called the most rewarding experience of my career, my private year with Mozart. Arthur Rubinstein said of this series, She played brilliantly and I admired her very greatly.
Reisenberg toured with orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic under John Barbirolli, and was the first soloist to play twice in one season with that symphony, in 1941. Nadia often played premieres of Russian composers, and frequently included newer compositions on her programs, although she didn t prefer ultra-modern twentieth century music. She also recorded for commercial labels. Her last solo recital was at Carnegie Hall on 21 November 1947, though she still gave some concerts, such as a benefit for Israeli children at Carnegie Hall in 1948.
In general, after 1950, she focused on teaching, becoming a beloved, sympathetic instructor with deep personal interest in all her students. She was known to set high standards, yet did so in a gentle, clear and kind way.
Nadia's last public concert occurred 3 October 1981 in Carnegie Hall and she died 10 June 1983 in New York, surrounded by family and friends. A version of this article will appear in the forthcoming edition of Encyclopedia Judaica. Many materials for this article came from Robert Sherman and Alexander Sherman, Nadia Reisenberg: A Musician's Scrapbook (College Park: International Piano Archives at Maryland, 1986); The New York Times and other newspapers.
http://www.lib.umd.edu/PAL/IPAM/IPAMreisenberg.html
Regina Resnik
American. Born August 30, 1922, New York City. Mezzo- Soprano. Earned her B.A. in Music at Hunter College. Debuted as Leonora in Il Trovatore to great acclaim. Sang as Lady Macbeth under Fritz Busch in December, 1942 with the New Opera Company. Sang with the Metropolitan Opera starting around 1944 and continuing around ten years. According to Wikipedia: "During the next decade, she offered twenty heroines: Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni, Donna Anna(Don Giovanni), Fidelio, Sieglinde (Die Walkure), Gutrune (Gotterdammerung), Chrysothemis (Elektra), Rosalinda, Eboli (Don Carlo), Aida, Alice Ford (Falstaff), Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Musetta (La Boheme). She was the Met's first Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes and created Delilah in Bernard Roger's world premiere of "The Warrior." She then also began a long association with the San Francisco Opera. As for the voice, it was a dramatic soprano, rich and vibrant, it invited comparison with the legendary Rosa Ponselle. During these years, her teacher was Rosalie Miller and her life began with the legendary conductors; Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, George Szell, Fritz Reiner, William Steinberg and Erich Leinsdorf.
In 1953, while singing Sieglinde in Bayreuth, the great conductor, Clemens Krauss, was to forecast her future, insinuating her voice was actually a mezzo-soprano. Despite her great success as a soprano, she realized that her entire voice was constantly darkening in color. In 1955 she began a year of restudy with the celebrated baritone, Giuseppe Danise. Her first two roles were Amneris in Aida and Laura in La Gioconda. On February 15, 1956, she debuted as a mezzo-soprano at the Metropolitan in a brilliant portrayal of Marina in Boris Godunov under Dimitri Mitropoulos. October, 1957, was the beginning of a long career in London at the Royal Opera House. Her debut as Carmen was a success and, in time, she was heard as Amneris (Aida), Marina (Boris Godunov), Ulrica (Un Ballo in Maschera), the Nurse in Die Frau Ohne Schatten and the Old Prioress in Dialogues of the Carmelites. In the historic Franco Zeffirelli-Carlo Maria Giulini production of Falstaff, her Mistress Quickly became the model for this role. Carmen, Klytemnestra (Elektra), Mistress Quickly and the Pique Dame (Queen of Spades) became her signature parts.
From the French Press - "Hers was the most skillfully inflected Carmen with every nuance of the role and every syllable of her French set forth in a masterly manner. It was also the most beautifully sung performance of the role. From the dramatic standpoint, this was the ideal Carmen - ferocious, sultry, unpredictable; never banal, never vulgar." But with Klytemnestra, Miss Resnik met her greatest challenge "a dramatic conception that is unforgettable and a vocal prowess without limit." Surely among the happiest memories are three comic masterpieces - her Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus, the Marquise in La Fille du Regiment (with Sutherland and Pavarotti) and her Mistress Quickly in the Leonard Bernstein Zeffirelli Falstaff of 1964.
Fluent, singing in six languages, her multifaceted talent crossed stylistic lines from the classic to the romantic, the Wagnerian to the modern. As the years passed, Miss Resnik developed a steady network of international performances: La Scala, The Paris Opéra (hailed as Carmen), Salzburg, Naples, Vienna, Lisbon, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Munich, Berlin, Brussels, Marseilles, Stuttgart, Hamburg and a return to Bayreuth. The Met, however, remained her base and among her triumphs there, was the new Elektra (with Birgit Nilsson and Leonie Rysanek) and The Queen of Spades. Outside the Met, she appeared in works by Poulenc, (an unforgettable portrait of the Old Prioress in Dialogues of the Carmelites), Menotti (The Medium), Von Einem (Visit of the Old Lady), Walton (The Bear), Weill (Mahagonny), Frank Martin (MystPre), Britten(Lucretia - both Female Chorus and Lucretia) and Barber (her Baroness in Vanessa). She has recorded all her great signature roles, Carmen (Thomas Schippers), Klytemnestra (Georg Solti), Mistress Quickly (Leonard Bernstein), Orlovsky (Herbert von Karajan), "Pique Dame" Countess (Msitislav Rostropovich) and Sieglinde (Clemens Krauss), among many others. She became the only singer in operatic history to have sung both the soprano and mezzo leads in much of her repertory. In the United States and Canada she has also appeared in countless regional companies.
In the decade spanning 1971-1981, she distinguished herself as a stage director with Arbit Blatas, the renowned Lithuanian-born painter and sculptor, as designer. "Carmen" (Hamburg) which became the film "The Dream and the Destiny", "Falstaff" (Venice, Warsaw, Madrid, Lisbon), "Queen of Spades" (Vancouver, Sydney), "The Medium" and "The Bear" (Lisbon), "Elektra" (Venice, Strasbourg, Lisbon) and "Salome" (Lisbon, Graz).
In 1987, Resnik conquered a new world making an incredible transition to the American musical theatre as a singing actress. Her Mrs. Schneider in "Cabaret" on Broadway earned her a Tony nomination and her now incomparable Mme. Armfeldt ("A Little Night Music") at Lincoln Center brought her a Drama Desk nomination in 1991. Nominated for Broadway's 1988 Tony Award as Best Actress.
Teaching career
Her own ability to verbalize her unique ideas has made her an exceptional master class teacher at the Metropolitan Opera, for ten years, at the Mozarteum (Salzburg), the Canadian Opera (Toronto), the San Francisco Opera, the Opera Studio of Opera Bastille in Paris, the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School. She is Master Teacher- in - Residence in the Opera Department of the Mannes College of Music, and has been responsible for the preparation of "La Bohème", "The Magic Flute", "Don Giovanni", "Il Tabarro", "Gianni Schicchi", "The Marriage of Figaro" and "The Dialalogue of the Carmelites." In Italy, she is Master Teacher of Vocal Studies at the Ca Zenobio Master Campus in Treviso, and Musical Director of Eurobottega, a unique program for young singers. of the European Union, with headquarters in Venice and Treviso. The now renowned concert series "Regina Resnik Presents" has become part of the American musical scene. Conceived by her son, Michael Philip Davis who is Artistic Director and Dramaturg, Miss Resnik appears as narrator in these concerts that have been televised and shown on CUNY-TV and will soon become a DVD.
Awards and honors
Celebrations of her career began in New York City when "Regina Resnik Day" was proclaimed. She received the Lawrence Tibbett Award from the American Guild of Musical Artists and a special tribute from Lincoln Center. The city of Venice honored her 50th anniversary in a special event. The 60th anniversary of her illustrious career was celebrated by the Metropolitan Opera Guild at Lincoln Center in New York.
Hunter College has invested her with an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters and, in 2007, the New England Conservatory honored her with a Doctorate of Music. She has served as a trustee of the Hunter Foundation and as a member of the jury of the Peabody Awards for Radio and Television. She still serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the Board of Advisors of CUNY-TV."
While starting out as a soprano, in the mid 1950s, due to vocal problems, she trained herself to sing in the lower registers and became a mezzo. She toured widely and sang with operas around the world, becoming especially famous for her acting and her role in Carmen.
Dobe (Dena) Ressler
American. Boston based clarinetist. An instructor at KlezKamp. She has taught at the Klezmer Institute (a summer program at the New England Conservatory of Music) and taught a course on klezmer history. She studied with Hankus Netsky. Her klezmer group is Di Bostoner Klezmer. Dena has appeared on stage with major figures in the klezmer music scene.
http://www.yiddishmusic.com/home.html
Eleanor Reissa
American Yiddish singer. Born in Brooklyn, NY. Child of Holocaust survivors, Ruth(Ruchele) Hoff and Chaskel Schlusselberg. BA from Brooklyn College, graduating cum laude, majoring in Speech and Theatre. Reissa is a actress, playwright and Tony-nominated director of "Those Were the Days", a Yiddish musical revue in 1991 featuring Bruce Alder. Changed her name to "Reissa" for the stage. She has many CDs including "Songs in the Key of Yiddish", "Going Home, Gems of Yiddish Song". Her play "Thicker Than Water" examines how "we, in the present, are affected by the ripples of the past in unexpected ways." The Folksbiene Yiddish Theater in NY producted the world premiere of Zise Khaloymes (Sweet Dreams) by Eleanor Reissa, with music by Zalmen Mlotek, and Frank London of The Klezmatics. She starred in the title role of "Yentl" to tremendoius critical acclaim. Her new CD is "Songs in the Key of Yiddish". Photo Credit: The Eleanor Reissa website.
http://www.eleanorreissa.com/
Zita Rit
Conductor of the Russian Women's Melody Choir of Chicago, an ensemble of women who are all immigrants from the fromer USSR. The choir performs in Yiddish, English, Russian and Hebrew.
Betty Robbins (Bertha Abramson)
American. Born April 9, 1924, Cavala, Greece. First female synagogue cantor. At age 4, she moved to Poland with her family. As a youngster there, she convinced the local cantor to teach her to sing for synagogue, (which he agreed to do if she cut her braids!) In 1938, the family escaped from Poland to Australia. There, she met and married an American service man and moved to US, settling in Oceanside, New York. In 1955, she was appointed cantor at Temple Avodah for their High Holidays. The New York Times ran an article on August 3, 1955, quoting Reform officials that she may have been "the very first woman cantor in ...Jewish history." She continued to teach children and serve as a cantor in various synagogues in places she lived, and on Jewish holiday cruises.
Julie Eichberg Rosewald
German-American. Soprano. First known woman cantor, in San Francisco, during the years between 1884-1893, the only currently known example of a nineteenth century woman cantor in America. Born on March 7, 1847 in Stuttgart the daughter of Moritz Eichberg (1806-1892), a cantor of Stuttgart for many years, and Eleanor Seligsberg Eichberg (1811-1881). Julie studied music at the Stuttgart Conservatorium. At age 17, Julie came to America, joining her sister, Mrs. Pauline Weiller, a piano teacher, in Baltimore in 1864. In 1866, she married Jacob H. Rosewald, a violinist and conductor. She and her husband participated widely in Jewish community musical activities in Baltimore. She decided to further her musical studies in Europe in 1870. She began singing opera professionally in America in 1875 with the Kellogg English Opera Company. In 1877, she toured Europe-- this time engaged at Nuremberg, Mayence, Stuttgart, Cologne, Amserdam, Berlin and Dresden. Her work in Europe and especially as a prima donna with the Dresden Royal Opera, clinched her stardom. Following this successful European tour, she was engaged back in the US by the Emma Abbott Company as a prima donna in 1880, with her husband as violinists and director. She sang numerous roles to great acclaim. By Fall 1881, she sang as top of the billing next to Emma Abbott. She sang with this company as prima donna through 1884. Julie Rosewald toured widely, including southern and western US. By 1883, fatigue set in as her husband's health failed. Her tours with the Abbott Company had lasted four years when the couple decided to move for health reasons to San Francisco in the summer of 1884. She began a career there, and became a premier vocal coach. In 1891 she published her work: How shall I practice?: Practical suggestions to students of vocal music (San Francisco: The Bancroft Company, c1891). It was in San Francisco in 1884 that she was first called upon at Temple Emanu-El to sing the vocal parts of the cantor during religious services. The synagogue dubbed her the "Cantor Soprano" and she led the services and directed the choir at Temple Emanu-El in that role for over 9 years. From 1894 to 1897 she taught at Mills College Conservatory of Music where her prodigious memory was legendary. When she retired in 1902, she was one of the most beloved opera singers in America. She died in Germany on holiday, July 16, 1906. Her two older sisters, Pauline and Bertha were also musical. Julie Rosewald is mentioned in Amerian Women, a biographical encyclopedia published in 1897 and in Grove's Dictionary. Thanks to Victor Berch, retired Brandeis Special Collections Librarian, and family members for helping with the Eichberg family tree.
Anna Rosnovsky
Israeli violinist. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia. Studied at Tchaikovsky Academy of Music. Received Doctorate. Immigrated to Israel 1974. Member of Israel Philharmonic as a first violin. Teacher at Rubin Academy in Jerusalem.
Anna Shomer Rothenberg
Born, January 1, 1885, in Pinsk, Russia. Died, May 18, 1960 in New York. Yiddish folk singer, composer, author. Her father was a Yiddish playwright and novelist. She started singing as a very young child with extraordinary accuracy. The family moved to New York and she studied voice with Lazar Samioloff, Fracis Rogers and others. Premiered her opera "Once Upon a Time" in 1922 at the New York Yiddish Art Theatre. Member of Yuval Trio. Sang primarily in the Jewish community Jewish music. Held leadership positions in Mailamm, the American-Palestine Music Association, along with her sister, Miriam Shomer. Studied Jewish music in trip to Eretz Yisrael in 1927. Wrote, Songs Heard in Palestine, based on her study there. Her papers are held by YIVO in New York, which include newspaper clippings from 1916 through 1950. The materials are in Yiddish and English. Rothenberg made several recordings of her singing Yiddish songs. Copies of these recordings from the 1920s are held by the Florida Atlantic University. Copies of her book Songs Heard in Palestine, in which she wrote an introduction, are held at Cornell, JTS, Yeshiva, Vanderbilt, Harvard, Oberlin, Univ. of PA, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Ohio State, CAL and Reconstructionist Libraries. Several Public Libraries, including the BPL also hold the volume.
Chana Rothman
Canadian-born American. Singer-songwriter. Contemporary Jewish acoustic roots music. Chana's MYSpace page states: "Rothman's approach to performance, born of her background as an educator and spiritual leader, to go beyond a typical performer-audience dynamic. Music is a dialogue, she explains, It doesn't have to be a spectator sport. Rothman's music, using two languages and ancient texts to address social ills and joys of today, brings a universal appeal. Rothman's music bubbles with a conscious vibe that's capable of bringing people together, writes Richard Antone of Elmore Magazine, She is adept at using religious imagery and bilingual lyrics as a bridge rather than a wedge. Chana Rothman's music -- an urban mountain blend Chana Rothman's tunes, born of her native Canada, Himalayan trekking, adventures in Israel, and current muse, the New York City subways, have earned a growing pile of accolades. The New York Times called her recent River-to-River Festival concert well worth checking out and The Jewish Week gave her debut CD, We Can Rise (Oyhoo Records), four stars. Popsyndicate.com calls her music Bob Marley meets Edie Brickell, and the album was voted Best of 2007 by jewschool.com. Rothman has shared the stage with Hasidic reggae phenom Matisyahu as well as DJ Shadow and Lou Reed. Israeli Stars Chana Has Opened For: Habanot Nechama HaDag Nachash Some notable recent appearances: Highline Ballroom (NYC) World Cafe Live (Philadelphia, PA) River to River Festival (NYC) Levontin 7 (Tel Aviv, Israel) Cape May Singer-Songwriter Festival (Cape May, NJ) Jewlicious Festival (Long Beach, CA) Club Helsinki (Great Barrington, MA) Langdon Street Cafe (Montpelier, VT) Radio Bean (Burlington, VT) Chicago Jewish Music Festival (Chicago, IL) Oyhoo Festival (NYC) New York University (NYC) Gladstone Hotel (Toronto) CAJE Conference (Burlington, VT) Mercury Lounge (NYC) CBGB's (NYC) and many more. What people are writing: "folksy, worldly and intense melodies mixed with the unique sounds of feminine hip hop/reggae and powerful words of Hebrew." - The Jew Spot Blog "uniquely crafted bohemian vibes" - Jewlicious Festival "Four Stars" - The Jewish Week Radio Play Northwestern University Breakthrough Radio Staten Island University Acoustic Coffeehouse."
http://chanarothman.com
Khayele Rozental
Lithuanian singer, sister of of Leyb Rozental, a prolific writer of song texts. He wrote many songs performed by Khayele in the Vilna ghetto during the Holocaust years. If you have information regarding this singer, please contact the JMWC. Thanks.
Rachel Rubin
Singer Songwriter. Sings Orthodox popular music. Her CD is Ani L'Dodi. Some clips on site.
http://rachelrubin.net/MainMenu.htm
Ruth Rubin--
Yiddish folklorist, ethnomusicologist and song collector. Ruth Rubin collected and notated over 2000 Yiddish songs. Ms. Rubin sang the Yiddish folksongs, often unaccompanied. She made documentary recordings such as "The Old Country" on Folkways Records, with other folksingers such as Pete Seeger included in the project. In a documentary about her life and work, "A Life of Song: A Portrait of Ruth Rubin" by Cindy Marshall, Ruth Rubin states that her parents moved to Montreal in 1904 and she was born there in 1906 as Rifkele Royzenblatt. She was born on Sept. 1, 1906. (Mark Slobin, in his new introduction to "Voices of a People" lists her as being born in Khotin, Romania.) At age 5, her father died. She attended The Aberdeen School, a Montreal Protestant school, and in the afternoons, a Jewish secular "shule", the Peretz Shule,-- getting an immersion in Jewish Yiddish culture. At age seven she appeared on stage for the first time at the Monument National Theatre in Montreal as part of her school's annual concert. At 18, she moved to New York City. Inspired since meeting Shalom Aleichem in 1915, Ruth produced a book of "modern" Yiddish poetry called "Lider" in 1927 under her maiden name Rifka Royzenblatt. She married Sam Rubin in 1932 and had one son, Michael. She credits her mother, whose her vast knowledge of Yiddish song was extensively tapped, as one of her early informants of Yiddish song. Around 1935, encouraged by Chaim Zhitlowsky and Max Weinreich, Ruth Rubin began to seriously collect folksongs using a modified ethnographic method. Her collections show her view that Jewish folk songs are sources of Jewish history and literature. By 1950 she produced her first popular anthology, "A Treasury of Yiddish Folksong." Her book "Voices of a People: The Story of Yiddish FolkSong" appeared originally in 1963, and was recently republished in 2000 in a new edition by University of Illinois Press. Ruth Rubin lectured widely at college campuses, Jewish centers and Yiddish folksong groups, and inspired a newer generation of ethnomusicologists such as Mark Slobin and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. She continued gathering music from informants until very late in life. She received financial support in 1983 to help her organize her extensive recordings and materials. Her materials are now kept in several archives including in Tel-Aviv at AMLI (Americans for Libraries in Israel), at YIVO in New York, and at the Library of Congress. She died at 93 in year 2000. An obituary appeared in The Canadian Jewish Press and New York Times.
Canadian Jewish Press Obit
Ruth Rudinow nee Leviash
The following article was supplied by her daughter, Naomi Rudinow Cohen.
Ruth Leviash was born in Odessa, Russia, July 24, 1890. She studied at the Imperial Conservatory in Odessa, graduating in 1917. She married Moshe
Rudinow, (who also graduated in the same class,) on February 28, 1917. In 1919, they left Russia and toured though Europe, reaching Palestine in
1920, where they joined the First Palestine Opera Company. Moshe and Ruth sang in operas and concerts throughout Palestine until 1927, when she and her
husband sailed to the United States. Their son, Jacob was born in Odessa in August 1919, and their daughter, Naomi was born in Tel Aviv in July 1925.
Both reside in California. Ruth lived with Moshe, (Cantor of Temple Emmanuel,) in New York until
1948, when he retired and they moved to Oakland, California to be closer to the children. She continued to sing in concerts until Moshe's last illness and death in 1953. Ruth moved back to New York in 1955 and pursued her interests in music,
arts and crafts and her circle of friends and relatives. In 1985, after some
health problems, she moved again to California and lived until age 99 ½. She died April 10, 1990
Recordings of her vocal renditions (solo and in duet with Moshe,) are available on audiocassette, and soon on CD. To view more history of this singer, see a website devoted to her:
http://home.pacbell.net/dita_rae/Moshe.html
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